The last three Bellinger Valley Braves junior basketball teams left in Basketball NSW State Cup contention travelled down to Sydney last weekend with the U14 girls drawn to play at Sutherland and the Braves U18 girls and U16 boys both playing at Minto Stadium.
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The Braves 14 girls were quietly confident they could seriously challenge for the 2016 State Cup title if they could get past their first game opponent, the Sydney Comets.
And get past that title favourite they certainly did, rolling Sydney Comets 55 points to 41 in a game where every one of the Braves 10 girls made a positive impact on offence and defence.
Second pool game Saturday afternoon was against Blue Mountains Magic where the Braves girls maintained their winning momentum taking that contest comfortably 58 points to 39.
Third game on Sunday morning was against the premier team in Eastern Junior League Gosford Rebels – it was a tough and low scoring clash the Braves girls won 40 points to 25.
The Braves U14 girls matched up against the massive Dubbo Rams in the Sunday afternoon State Cup Grand final with the confident Rams coming off an also unbeaten season 2016 winning record.
In an entertaining contest the Braves and the Rams went basket for basket for all four quarters with the Rams just one basket in front when the final buzzer sounded, winning the State Cup 54 points to 52.
This loss brought an end to the gallant Braves 14 girls string of season 2016 wins which was 20-0 coming into this grand final.
Almost equally disappointing was the Bellinger Valley Braves U18 girls dropping their first State Cup game to Macarthur Heat across town at Minto with the Heat prevailing 62-58.
Undaunted, the Braves 18 girls bounced back to defeat their second pool opponent Hills Hornets 56-45 and then really hit their straps in game three against Newcastle Hunters 63-51.
But the damage was already done with only the top team in each side of the pool progressing to the Sunday afternoon grand final.
Macarthur Heat took home the 2016 State Cup trophy with a comfortable 72-57 victory against Queanbeyan Roadrunners.
The third Bellinger Valley team contesting State Cup was their Braves U16 boys, however, a string of unlucky injuries robbed them of any glory as they dropped all three of their cross-pool games; first against Blacktown West Storm 55-77, St George Saints 74-140 and Central Coast Waves 51-101.
Regardless, the Braves boys did their association proud fighting out every contest to the final buzzer.
